@GW_Volleyball Summer Blog Series: Hello Newman #1

I'm Kelsey Newman and I will be a senior outside hitter this fall. We just received word of our fall 2014 schedule and the team is very excited! Quick recap on our amazing 2013 season: We protected our court finishing 6-1 at home in conference, we defeated the #1 team in the A-10 at home with a court storm finish, the GW volleyball "Towel Gang" was born, and our team finished 3rd in the conference after the Atlantic 10 championship held here in the Smith Center. We spent the off season getting stronger in the weight room, smarter in the classroom, connected with the community, and tighter as a team. After such a phenomenal year we are more than excited for what 2014 has in store!

This summer I will be spending my time around campus with some of my teammates, classmates, and coworkers. I am currently an exercise science major in the Milken Institute School of Public Health and, taking advantage of everything this city has to offer, I landed an internship in the Physical Therapy clinic at the Pentagon! I will be working with the physical therapists and exercise specialists in the "Fit to Win" wellness program. I have now completed my first week with the program and I am still in awe.

On my first day I had to complete the HIPAA and government computer training programs. This ensures that I keep patient privacy and that I understand how to use the government computers in multiple settings. It took many hours, but now I'm prepared and I even have my own government login! After training, my supervisors decided to have me work on a project for the upcoming health fair held by the clinic next week. I will be creating and presenting a "smartphone apps" board to enlighten smartphone users on the benefits of certain healthy lifestyle and fitness apps. On my last day of the week I sat in on a presentation of the clinic's "Runner's Program". They have fancy treadmills that take blueprints of the patient's footprints and measure other things such as stride time and force applied to the floor. This detects the patient's possibility of injury or why they may already have one. But the coolest part of the presentation was the audience. I stood in a room of army officers, generals, and other service men and women dressed in full uniform. It was definitely intimidating but extremely surreal. I love the fact that the employees I shadow strive to help those who do so much to help our country.

After work each day I venture back to campus and spend my time in the weight room or on the court with my summer roommate, and junior GW volleyball setter, Jordan! We've been following the summer strength and conditioning packet set up by our strength coach Brandi Walker, and if she has anything to do with our workouts, we will be more than ready for the upcoming season. Like last summer, we also have open gyms set up at the Smith Center with teams from around the DC area. It's nice to see familiar faces and be able to stay exposed to the game with other high-level players from the area.

Stay tuned for more updates on my summer adventures in the weight room, on the court, and at the Pentagon in my next blog! Thanks for reading, Raise High!